At the present time, no standard method or device is being used on either passenger cars or trucks to prevent the driver from dozing due to tiredness as a result of driving. Roads have been constructed with parallel grooves or protrusions which may shake the driver passing over them to keep him awake and alert to road hazards. This applicant has also developed and patented a device for this particular purose, described and claimed in a U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,815. The patented device comprises a golfer's cap containing an alarm means energized by an electric battery and operable by a gravity-actuated switch means when the driver's head tilts when he is tired and feels drowsy. While it is experimentally found that when a driver begins to doze during driving, in most of such cases his head tilts forward to actuate the patented cap device; however, there are times when the driver dozes or falls into a drowsy state without his head being tilted forward and, surprisingly, he may doze at times without even closing his eyes. Such a situtation does not ensure the driver's safety at all times that he will be kept awake or awakened by the alarm when he experiences a torpid physical state.
To overcome these shortcomings of the existing methods of sustaining a car driver awake and mentally alert at all times, the present invention imparts an absolute safety measure to the driver using the device. While driving the car, if the driver feels drowsy he actuates manually a switch on the device to operate the device indefinitely until he is ready to turn it off. With this novel and effective method, the driver is kept awake at all times by the awakening stimuli transmitted to him by the awakening part of the device disposed in the back of his seat and in contact with his back. Since the spinal cord in the spinal column is the seat of the nervous system controlling the motive function of the human body comprising the arms and the legs, the awakening stimuli from the device disseminate from the nerve trunk in the spinal cord into the control function of the nervous system and thereby to sustain the brain function alert and the arms and the legs responsive to the brain control signals. Thus, by eliminating the tendency to doze, the driver's driving safety is ensured by the best possible safety measure.
Even though the driver is kept awake and alert using the present device during his travel, his body muscles may get tired because of continued driving. In such an event, he may stop his car at a secure area of the roadside and turn off the awakening or alerting section of the device and turn on, by means of the double-throw switch means, the relaxation-producing section of the electric circuit within the housing that is attached to the dashboard. This action causes a continued vibration to be produced in the part-two module attached to the seat back. The intensity of the vibration to suit the driver can be controlled by means of the current-intensity control means disposed on the housing attached to the dashboard. Thus, it is readily seen that the novel device aids the driver in a double function, by sustaining him awake and alert while driving and by relaxing and soothing his active muscles that may become tired and achy as a result of driving and sitting in a constant position. A further advantage of the present invention resides in the fact that the module which produces awakening or relaxation in the driver can be made either as a solid one-piece structure or in a two-piece structure. In the latter case, the portion of the module that is in contact with the back of the driver is a separate structure from the vibrating or pulsating part that contains the electrical mechanism for producing the alerting stimuli. In such an event, the vibrating or pulsating part of the module is shaped into a fusiform wand and is insertable into the hollow tubular portion of the module that is mounted between the seat back and the headrest above the seat back, and it can be removed from the module unit and used as a massager to soothe any part of the driver's body as he desires.